Some of the highest-paying jobs in America are in the oil patch. Another attractive thing about these jobs is that a lot of them don’t require a college degree. Yet a whole lot of people rank employment on oil rigs as among the worst in America. The main reasons for this are the stress and hazards associated with working closely with high-powered machinery, for long shifts, and usually in extreme environments. With these things to consider, work in the oil fields is probably something you’ll want to try if you can handle the physical demands of the job, but you won’t want to do it forever.
So let’s say you’ve done a few years in the oil business, you’ve got a bundle saved up, and you want to quit the job before the job quits you. Unless you want to go into full-time retirement, which aside from speeding up your trip to the old folks’ home is bad for your wallet, you’ll probably want to parlay your cash and your skills into something preferably both lucrative and enjoyable. Here are some options to think about:
Start Your Own Drilling Outfit
If you’ve saved up a good bit and you’ve been bitten by the wildcatting bug, you can try going it on your own. The beauty of doing something like this is that you’ll finally get to be the boss. The downside of it is that you’ll finally get to be the boss. Anxiety issues aside, you’ll probably have to get lucky in oilfield auctions, buy surplus equipment, and use all the contacts you’ve made, but the sky’s the limit on this high-risk play.
Work as a Consultant
If you did enough time in the industry, and you were able to gain varied experience, you can leverage this experience in a consultancy role. On top of your industry expertise, though, you have to have good people skills so you can be convincing in the role.
Invest
If you’re really tired of the whole industry and have a bit of cash, you can go into things like stocks and real estate. Stocks are a bit of an iffy play, given there are questions of how the global economy will go. Getting into real estate can be really good right now since housing prices still haven’t quite recovered from the bust, and there are still lots of good deals around, with institutional owners like banks just looking to dispose of idle assets. If you have a good eye, you can probably snap up a property or two at an auction of foreclosed properties.
Buy and Sell
If you’ve got a bit of cash and a good eye for used merchandise, you can look at buying surplus wholesale. This is a great way to make good cash these days, especially with the popularity of auctions and selloffs in Europe. What with things being the way they are, it’s also easy to sell used stuff since people are learning how to save by not buying things brand new.
Brandon Peters is an entrepreneur, writer, and observer of economic trends. He enjoys forecasting the direction the global economy’s going.
